This Is Bitcoin’s Big Story

According to Dan Morehead, CEO and Co-founder of major crypto investment firm Pantera Capital, the demand outpacing supply is “THE story in Bitcoin right now,” as BTC is already knocking on the door of its all-time high of USD 20,000,

PayPal’s crypto campaign is “already having a huge impact,” Morehead wrote in his November letter on Friday, pointing to PayPal’s 300 million users who just gained easy access to bitcoin. This development comes on the heels of first-mover Jack Dorsey’s Square’s Cash App, which has been in the bitcoin game for more than two years and whose bitcoin sales continue to increase quarter after quarter. Cash App raked in USD 1.63bn “of bitcoin revenue” in the third quarter this year.

Morehead emphasized that between PayPal and Cash App, “more than 100% of all newly issued bitcoins” are already being bought.” If PayPal continues buying at its current pace, it will be “buying more than all of the newly issued bitcoin within weeks,” Morehead noted, adding that this is where the “finite supply, inelasticity part comes in: At a higher price.” These dynamics are giving the bitcoin shortage and driving the bitcoin price close to new heights.

Furthermore, PayPal and Square aren’t the only ones buying up bitcoins. As reported, on Friday, Managing Director at significant crypto asset management firm Grayscale, Michael Sonnenshein, said that their team “scoped up over USD 188m [around BTC 10,000] into Grayscale Bitcoin Trust alone, yesterday.”

Per Bytetree data, BTC miners generated BTC 6,825 in the past seven days. However, as reported, 3.4m bitcoin is readily available to buyers now, while BTC trading volume on exchanges dropped by 41% in November.

Also, Pantera’s Morehead sees a world in which other “larger financial institutions” will catch FOMO (fear of missing out), leading to the “supply scarcity” becoming “even more imbalanced.“

“The only way supply and demand equilibrate is at a higher price,” said Morehead, noting that “this rally is much more sustainable.”

He also made a case for a further expansion of the US Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, given the US elections’ outcome with a divided government. Placing the money printer to “brrr,” policymakers will inflate the value of assets “whose quantity cannot be eased,” profiting store of value assets bitcoin and gold.

At pixel time (05:32 UTC), BTC trades at USD 18,626, falling from USD 18,946, ended earlier today. The price is still up by almost 3% in a day and 15% in a week. It rallied by 46% in a month and 143% in a year.